A young singer-songwriter in Lancaster, Pennsylvania recently wrote a song inspired by The Grapes of Wrath, joining a line of Steinbeck-loving singer-songwriters stretching all the way back to Woodie Guthrie. Jenelle Janci, staff writer for Lancaster Online, notes the most recent visitation of the Grapes of Wrath muse in her July 5 profile of Sean Cox, a popular club and wedding musician who recently cut his first solo record. “Letters to the Light”—the set Cox sang for his recent solo debut at a downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania venue—sounds very different from the punk and garage-band music Janci says the enterprising singer-songwriter performed as a teenager. Steinbeck, an author with eclectic musical tastes who admired artistic courage, would approve.
Photo of Sean Cox by Joey Ulrich courtesy WITF.
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This is very nice indeed. Of course this young man is not the first singer/songwriter to be inspired by Steinbeck’s novel. Woody (not Woodie) Guthrie was among the first. Songs derived from “Grapes” include Woody’s “Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues” and “Vigilante Man”); Kris Kristofferson’s “Here Comes that Rainbow Again,” (based on Chapter 15), and Bruce Springsteen’s “Ghost of Tom Joad.” Perhaps others know of other songs?